It's Not a Zero-Sum World

I appreciated Rich Karlgaard's column in Forbes, "World's Worst Disease." He argues carefully that politicians, many academics, most journalists, and most TV entertainment work from a worldview that says, "If you have it, it's less for me, because it's a zero-sum game." Economically, this isn't true. We create wealth and growth is a good thing. The Chinese government claims that their economy is lifting 1 million people a year out of poverty -- that's not happening because they're transferring money from one group to another via taxation!

There is one section of Karlgaard's column that isn't really about economics, but about men:

"The most popular [TV] male leads of today stand in stark contrast to the unambiguously moral protagonists of the past, good guys like Magnum, Matlock or Barnaby Jones," writes Warren St. John in a Dec. 11 New York Times story. "They are also not simply flawed in the classic sense: men who have the occasional affair or who tip the bottle a little too much. Instead they are unapologetic about killing, stealing, hoarding and beating their way to achieve personal goals …" (my emphasis). "

That's certainly true. I doubt John Wayne movies would be critical successes today.